Bihar’s development has been derailed: BJP

Patna, July 31 (IANS) Senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi on Friday said Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had “betrayed” the BJP and that Bihar’s development had been derailed after his party was ousted from the state government.

“Nitish Kumar has derailed Bihar’s development process; the image of Bihar has deteriorated and the crime graph has gone up and even left behind the 2005 crime figures when ‘jungle raj’ prevailed in the state,” the former deputy chief minister said while releasing the BJP report card on the Nitish Kumar government’s performance in the last 25 months.

Sushil Kumar Modi said cases of rape, abduction and murder have increased in the last two years, adding that no new schemes were launched while old schemes for the state’s development were stopped.

“Bihar’s growth rate has remained half of what it was during the tenure of the NDA government led by Nitish Kumar, when the BJP was a partner in the government,” he said. According to him, when the BJP-JD(U) alliance was in power, the state’s GDP was 15.5 percent in 2012-13 but had now come down to 8 percent.

Leader of Opposition Nand Kishore Yadav said that Nitish Kumar could not develop Bihar along with Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad.

“Both will only bring back the jungle raj,” Yadav said.

Nitish Kumar on Monday said the state had developed in the last 10 years and his government had worked for its development with justice for all.

“Bihar has now a positive image as the rule of law has been established. It recorded high growth rate and witnessed the development of basic infrastructure to human development in the last one decade, which was lauded and studied by foreign universities,” Nitish Kumar said while releasing a final report card on his government’s performance ahead of the coming Bihar assembly polls in October-November.

Nitish Kumar has repeatedly told the media that development took place during his two terms as chief minister from 2005 to 2010 and from 2010 to 2015.